I work at a facility building valves.  I'm being asked to meet differing fugitie emission standards.  there are 3 that I know of, and I'm trying to get a handle units of measurement.  I think this has been sorta hashed out before on here, but the thread was closed.  

The 3 standards I'm looking at are:

1.  ISO 15848-1 (Type testing) very in depth requires heat cycling, 6 bar, casing around the packing, data acquisition, 500 strokes or even 1000 for CO2 service, requires measurement of ALL helium that leaks past the entire stem diameter (ppmV) or a sniffer test that reads in ppmV.  there also some other options

2.  ISO 15848-2  (production testing) also requires that the device read in ppmV

3. Shell Spec MESC SPE 77/312 requires high pressures, qualified technicians and units to be atm*cm^3/s

Now I have a varian 959 manual mass-Spectrometer.  it measures in atm*cc/s.

I know the discussion that cam about before you could not convert between atm*cc/sec and ppm, but where doesn ppmV fall into this?  It means part per million of volume.  

Basically the end goal is this:  I want to have one device that can perform all  ISO 15848-2 AND the Shell spec.  I'm having a tough time finding one that reads in ppmV, is there something small I'm mising here?

In the ISO spec is says in multiple spots that 1ppmV= 1 mL/m^3 = 1 cm^3/m^3.  So 1 ppmV = volume/volume

if the reading out of the varian is atm*cm^3/s is there a conversion that will get me to ppmV?  

Here's their wording in the description of the sniffing method:

A portable instrument is used to detect leaks from valves. The instrument detector type is not specified. But
the selected detector and its sensitivity shall be able to meet the tightness class limits. This procedure is
intended to locate and classify leaks only, and is not used as a direct measure of mass emission rates from
individual sources.
The detector probe (sniffing) method, see Figure B.1 and Figure B.2, allows the measurement of the local
emission of the stem sealing system (production test) and body seals.
The measured concentration is expressed in parts per million volume (1 ppmv = 1 ml / m3 = 1 cm3 / m3).
Some helium mass spectrometers are capable of measuring a local volumetric leak rate. It is expressed in
millibars per litre per second or equivalent atmospheres per cubic centimetre per second.
To avoid any correlation between local and global measurement, measurement with the sniffing method is
expressed in parts per million volume (1 ppmv = 1 ml / m3 = 1 cm3 / m3-ball valve).

Maximum emission limits expressed in terms of gas flow rates (atm*cc/s, mbar*l/s or equivalent units) should be applicable to GLOBAL detection techniques only, i.e. when all the possible emissions from a sealing system are captured and sent to the detector, like in the VACUUM method described in the Annex (see VDI 2440, 2000 edition, pages 95 & 96, and/or ISO 15848-1, Annex A.1) or in the FLUSHING method with a tight enclosure around the sealing under test (see ISO 15848-1, Annex A.2).

       Those methods are not always easy and quick to set up, especially for valve packings, so they are usually adopted for TYPE testing qualifications only (e.g.: according to TA-Luft and/or ISO 15848-1), while a more practical technique is needed for PRODUCTION testing.

       So SNIFFER method is used (see ISO 15848-1, Annex B) even if it is a LOCAL and semi-quantitative technique only (see ASME B&PV Code, Section V, Article X): for this reason, it seems more appropriate to express the results of a sniffer detection in terms of He concentration (ppm), as this depends on the measureament point, its distance from the leak sources, etc...

       If the mass spectrometer leak detector gives a reading in terms of flow rate (atm*cc/s, mbar*l/s or equivalent units) also in SNIFFER mode, of course that should be considered as just the product of the He concentration in the measurement point times the total sucked-in air flow rate (hence the reading is proportional to concentration, as long as the sucked air flow is constant), but must NOT be mixed up with the result of a GLOBAL detection technique.

       Unluckily, VARIAN does not publish useful data about intaken air flow rate (probably because the exact value may depend on some variables and it is hardly repeatible...?).  
       However, it is possible for example to establish an empirical correlation between instrument readings and helium concentrations (ppm) by recording the results obtained with the sniffer probe in front of two or more sources of helium at known and certified concentrations (e.g.: 10 ppm, 50 ppm, 100 ppm, etc...): this "system calibration" should be repeated at the beginning of each test session.     

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